High-powered computing devices produce large amounts of heat that are preferably directed quickly and efficiently away from the source of the heat and dissipated into the environment so that performance of the device is not impacted by high temperatures. For wearable devices such as head-mounted display (HMD) devices, the surface temperature of the device affects the usability and comfort of the user, and thus heat dissipation is especially important. Further, in order to be wearable, the device should be lightweight and durable even with the addition of a heat dissipating mechanism.
Graphite is one example of an anisotropically thermally conductive material, meaning that it conducts heat very well within a plane (along two dimensions), but very poorly along a third dimension, out of the plane. Using such an anisotropically conductive material to dissipate heat presents some challenges. While graphite is flexible, it does not attach well at lateral sides of the plane, particularly if the graphite is bent to form a curve. Thus, attaching components at the edges of the plane may increase the space needed to house the graphite. In addition, if heat is directed into the graphite straight into the plane, along the third dimension, the graphite will resist the flow of heat due to the poor thermal conductivity in that dimension until the heat is able to flow within the plane. Similar problems arise when leading heat out of the graphite through the third, poorly conductive, dimension.